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User	alteredlife | 2006-05-08 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Well said Leelo. Very well said.

User	mae | 2006-05-06 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I also think that inspiration can improve with experience - CAN, not necessarily does. If you look at most of the writing from early teens on this site, it concerns depression or a broken heart (sometimes leading to depression) and little else. Part of that, of course, is the natural self-involvement of the teen-ager, but even beyond that, they are only moved to write poetry when they’re depressed. If they can stick with writing until they grow out of their tunnel vision stage, inspiration improves as well. Please note, I said MOST of the early teens on this site, not all. mae

User	DavidHirt | 2006-05-06 |
Subject	untitled
Message	An astute point Smarty. At the same time, the more one sees and the more one trains them self to see, the more inspiration is readily available. I find the more poetry I read the more in tune to the world and my own inspiration I am. The act of reading poetry makes me receptive to Poetry/Grace. The writing of poems cultivates the ability to be prepared when the Grace/Poetry arrives to be written down.

User	smartypoet | 2006-05-05 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Surely it’s a twofold process? Let the inspiration run through you, and then see how it looks and shape it up with the knowledge you have. The inspiration is the part that doesn’t really improve with age, it’s either there or it isn’t, but the shaping gets better with experience.

User	DavidHirt | 2006-05-04 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I used to enjoy letting it take over. But I was rarely satisfied with the results because my initial responses, from my point of view, are rather tepid attempts or very rigid. One of these days I hope to move beyond awareness into symply being a poet. It’s like learing a martial art, only to eventually forget it and live it when it becomes so much a part of you.

User	ghostknight | 2006-05-04 |
Subject	untitled
Message	i enjoy letting it take over, really. i try to control to the point that it follows certain channels, like water moving through a hose instead of just spraying out of the faucet. to me, the best part about creating ’art’ (for lack of a better word; i won’t dare claim to try to define art) is that a good portion of it is always out of my control, either because it’s new territory to my conscious mind or because it’s... simply spontaneous. that’s a great word to use, spontaneous. there’s no way to write a poem or story, or paint, or write music, without some form of inspiration, something that triggers the ’artist’ in the first place. if it wasn’t spontaneous then the artist would already have all his ideas from the start. that’s just not how it works. and besides, that’s boring. i guess it’s a balance, one that’s unique for every person.

User	DavidHirt | 2006-05-04 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I do, however, beleive art can be controlled, indeed must be controlled to be considered art. Art is the root word of words like artifice and artificial, after all.

User	DavidHirt | 2006-05-04 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I would have to disagree, Munchie. I’ve had too many people misinterpret my poems, and still connect or whatnot to it, and like the poems, and not see anything in me or what I put into the poem there. Art is always filtered through That is the only part of what you said I’m disagreeing with, though. Not the whole posting. And often times a poem is simply a persona, a mask the poet puts on to discuss an idea.

User	Munchie_1226 | 2006-05-04 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I think that art can be controlled...whatever image is portrayed in the artists mind is what is portrayed on the canvas or the paper. You can’t have the art without the mind. Art doesn’t create itself.

User	ghostknight | 2006-05-04 |
Subject	untitled
Message	and if you were meant to be the next hitler? you’d be doomed from the start, it seems. it still has to come down to the reader. it’s one person’s inner idea of art as compared to the many, many who view it from the outside. in the end the artist disappears and only the words are remembered, anyway. a real artist shouldn’t care if he was meant to be an artist or not, because a real artist knows that art cannot be controlled.

User	Munchie_1226 | 2006-05-04 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I say that poetry all goes with passion. If you truly have heart for the artform then you will create a masterpiece. Just as Beethoven had a heart for music. It all comes from what your talents truly are. If you are meant to be a poet, it will show from the point that you put your mind and heart into it.

User	DavidHirt | 2006-05-04 |
Subject	untitled
Message	You’d be surprised how much writing is just old ideas rehashed; Different old ideas brought together to create some insight into both. But poetry does that too.

User	Lost Sheep | 2006-05-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	That may be another thing that distinguishes poetry from other forms of writing. Most forms of writing communicate new knowledge. Poetry can do that, but it more often works with what you already know, causing you to feel differently about it.

User	Fantastic Freya | 2006-05-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Poetry does not necessarily improve with age -- it improves with a desire to improve, and exposure to other poetry. But Steve, I think you’ve nailed something down with this statement: "A "quality" poem will make a connection and cause a reader to feel differently or to view something in a different light." That different light is what a writer should always aim for.

User	Lost Sheep | 2006-05-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	I see all forms of writing as tools of communication, so I guess I judge the quality of a poem on how well it communicates. Stories and novels can get away with expressing things. "He jumped. She ran away." Poems have to reach farther and actually communicate what it was like to be there. Of course, communicating includes a lot of things above and beyond the obvious storyline. A good poem communicates ambiance and (you knew I was going to say it) emotion. A "quality" poem will make a connection and cause a reader to feel differently or to view something in a different light. The "worst" poems communicate to no one but the author. The "best" poems communicate to damn near everybody. Steve

User	DavidHirt | 2006-05-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Well, here’s a question. How do you determine the quality of a poem? How can we talk about quality when everyone thinks there poetry is the best stuff since sliced bread? If poetry is what you want to call it, then quality is a non-enitity. The word is dead. The moment you talk about quality, there has to be rules for determining quality, which would mean there are indeed good and bad poems. So either there is no quality or some people might have to face they have none or little. I admit that I’d rather not be one of those people... but I could very well be.

User	ghostknight | 2006-05-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	wow, promoting your shit in the forums? lame.

User	Katana Ryoko | 2006-05-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Age does not determine quality. Check out my shit and you’ll see what I mean.

User	DavidHirt | 2006-05-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Help. Is the wha Doctow in the house? I’m having a midwife cwisis.

User	DavidHirt | 2006-05-03 |
Subject	untitled
Message	Maybe we need a poetic midwife.